Publisher's Synopsis
An important volume which brings together established academics in the field of new media and UK politics. It provides an assessment of how major institutions and organizations within the British political system are adapting to the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) and what the consequences of that adaptation are for their future democratic performance. Thus, the role that the Internet, e-mail and the World Wide Web are playing in the operation of structures such as the Courts and government bureaucracy, as well as parties and interest groups, are explored. The purpose of this book is not to assess the validity of theories but to use them as a boundary for a largely empirical and contemporaneous discussion of British governance and the new ICTs. This book assesses how far the information society really affects the workings of government, in terms of three basic scenarios of erosion, reform, or maintenance of the status quo, and what this means for the role of the citizen in relation to those institutions. - -
